Houston visitors often remark how shocked they are that our zoning-free city works as well as it does. Wait a bit, however, and they'll probably complain about the sprawling parking lots that fill our megalopolis. The funny thing about those lots is that they're not the result of a free market run amok, but strict city regulations.

Houston's parking requirements are a love affair with asphalt, and a punch in the gut to local businesses. Building the mandatory minimum number of parking spots is expensive, and businesses in high-demand neighborhoods can end up paying more to comply with the rules than they do for their lease.

There is one place in Houston, however, where parking policy is free of unnecessary government diktat: downtown.

In the central business district, the free market sets the parking standards. Downtown's paid parking works surprisingly well and could be the model for the rest of the city.

Without city regulations, downtown property owners provide the parking they need and the private sector fills in the rest. This means about 75,000 garage spaces, supplemented by 28,000 surface-lot spots and 3,500 to 5,000 public on-street spots, depending on the time of day.

But new construction is adding demand to downtown parking as surface lots are replaced with residences and office buildings. An area that once had a surfeit of parking now faces a tighter market and higher prices.

This problem stands in contrast to massive lots that sit empty where the city has mandated free parking. Both sides of the parking coin indicate a problem with supply and demand. Unlike sprawling parking lots, however, there's a solution to downtown's problem: Add new spots.

As Bob Eury, president of Central Houston and executive director of the Downtown Management District, told Chronicle reporter Dug Begley, "We came into this period with some excess supply. […] Now there is more demand, but over time that might work itself out" ("Downside of downtown boom," Page A1, Saturday).

Just wait, and the downtown parking market will reach a new equilibrium.

Still, patience is difficult when you're late for a meeting and can't find parking. Downtown could use someone to help push parking along. We're living in a time when surface lots can charge $80 for a parking spot during a Beyoncé concert. The central business district needs some stability in the marketplace to protect against shocks and ensure a baseline availability of the public good that is parking. This is where government steps in - not by burdening businesses, but by providing a service.

The city-boosting, quasi-governmental Houston First already manages plenty of downtown parking and is even adding a new 1,900-spot parking garage. Instead of mandating parking downtown, Houston governmental bodies help out by providing centralized public parking locations of their own. Think of it as building public parks instead of requiring that every house have a sizable backyard and swing set.

There has even been some movement in this direction outside downtown after updates to the city's parking code last year added some much-needed flexibility to the notoriously strict standards. The Washington Avenue Parking Benefit District, for example, has created metered parking for on-street spots with the goal of directing those funds into local infrastructure, like sidewalks or even a parking garage. As land becomes more valuable, we should want to see less of it wasted on underused asphalt. Deregulating parking will help guarantee that we get the best use out of land.

Houston normally doesn't like anything resembling central planning, but by providing paid parking as a public good, City Hall could take regulatory pressure off private businesses, help reduce wasted parking lots and maybe even make money in the process. You may just have to walk a block and pay a few bucks to park your car. Businesses are free to operate as they wish, City Hall ensures everything runs smoothly. That's how government in Houston is supposed to work.